Uh oh…

Our spamtraps received what we think must be a spam from a recognized university in Europe, advertising a summer school of theirs. So we wrote to the professor to ask “How did you build this address list?”, as you would…

We received a response very soon. We are not naming the people involved yet. We’re waiting for the position of the University first, before naming, and before listing. But here’s the response from Prof. We will allow it to stand on its own without any comments.

Subject: The false moralists

Dear Sir,
first of all qualify yourself with first and last name. I would like
to know who is the person I am talking to.
Secondly who gave you the right to inquire about our institution which
is,no-profit, worldwide known as one of the best summer school in the
[BRANCH OF SCIENCE] scientific community?
The addresses we used belong to institutions
employees,students,scientists and researchers which are potential
participants of our summer schools. Could you give us a single address
which does not fall in this category?
In more than 20 years of activity our institution has given the
opportunity to young resaerchers of the [GEOGRAPHIC REGION] and to other
students coming from disadvantaged regions to contact eminent
scientists (including Nobel Prizes) at very affordable costs.
The human history shows that even the most generous activities have
found oppostion in the so called false "moralists"!
I am sorry for you but we go ahead in our activity.
Best wishes
FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

4 thoughts on “Uh oh…

  1. Steven Koenig

    Wow, so they have no problem breaking the law, because they are the Good™. So, if you are non-profit, spam like hell!

    Reply
  2. RocketScientist Post author

    It seems to end well. It was difficult to imagine otherwise.

    Dear Sirs,

    Please accept our sincere apologies on the behalf of the Chancellor of the [Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork] for any inconvenience caused.

    We appreciate your efforts in bringing this matter to our attention.

    As part of the [ACADEMIC] network “Discworld’s Academic & Research Network” ([URL]) transmitting unrequested commercial and/or advertising material (“spamming”) is not allowed.

    We can confirm the academic institutional aim of these kind of communications but we are still verifying how this address list has been built and if these emails contains a functioning unsubscribe mechanism.

    So, we invited Prof. X to suspend sending these kind of emails and we are carefully investigating this issue.

    Thank you.

    Best regards,
    N N
    Postmaster and System Administrator @
    [Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork]

    Reply
  3. RocketScientist Post author

    Unfortunately the spam goes on, from

    Received: from mail.liparischool.it (mail.liparischool.it [51.255.161.176])

    which is a VPS from OVH, still advertising a return address at the University of Catania. Professor Alfredo Ferro, whose name appears on the domain registration, was also responsible for the clueless reply above.

    Reply

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